Generating endothelial cells from human pluripotent stem cells holds great promise for the development of therapies for diseases or conditions that would benefit from angiogenesis or vasculogenesis. However, endothelial development is regulated by numerous developmental pathways. Moreover, to date differentiation of human pluripotent stem cells into endothelial cells has been inefficient and required the use of expensive growth factors. Accordingly, there is a continuing need in the art for efficient, defined, and scalable methods for generating human endothelial cells from human pluripotent stem cells.